Jesuit Bend, Louisiana

Jesuit Bend
Unincorporated community
Country	United States
State	Louisiana
Parish	Plaquemines
Elevation	3 ft (0.9 m)
Coordinates	29°44′54″N 90°01′33″W / 29.74833°N 90.02583°WCoordinates: 29°44′54″N 90°01′33″W / 29.74833°N 90.02583°W
Timezone	CST (UTC-6)
- summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)
Area code	504
Location of Jesuit Bend in Louisiana
Location of Louisiana in the United States

Jesuit Bend is an unincorporated community in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, United States, on the West Bank of the Mississippi River.

History

Members of the Society of Jesus settled at this location in the early part of the 18th century, a bend in the Mississippi River, hence the name "Jesuit Bend".^[1] The Jesuit settlers brought with them from Asia the satsuma, a loosely skinned seedless tangerine. Satsumas have been farmed at this locale ever since.^[1]

At one point, Jesuit Bend had a station on the New Orleans, Fort Jackson & Grand Isle Railroad line.^[2] Jesuit Bend was also the site of an incident in 1955 when Rev. Gerald Lewis, a Catholic priest, was stopped from celebrating Mass there because of his color.^[3] This is the location of the Jesuit Bend Wetland Mitigation Bank, an effort to return open water to a fully functioning freshwater marsh, to help reverse the longstanding problem of wetlands erosion in the Mississippi River Delta.

References

1. Satsumas WWNO-FM Radio story of October 3, 2009, accessed September 14, 2014.
2. Louisiana in Three Volumes, Alcée Fortier, ed., Century Historical Association, 1914, Vol. 1, page 586.
3. Conciliaria, March 27, 2012 (Accessed August 13, 2014).